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August 27, 2007
New Emory Clinic facility to provide ideal patient experience

By sarah goodwin

The Woodruff Health Sciences Center took its first step to build the new Emory Clinic facility on Clifton Road on Aug. 27.

The groundbreaking celebration moves the University and Emory Healthcare closer to realizing their goal to provide Atlanta with a state-of-the-art complex where physicians and scientists work together to provide a model patient-centered health care system for the 21st century. The facility will provide the kind of environment needed to support translating research from the laboratory to the bedside and set a world-class standard for health care.

Slated for 470,000-square-feet dedicated to patient care, the new $365 million, five-story facility is planned for a site next to the current Emory Clinic complex. Construction will begin in 2008 after work is completed to prepare the site for the new building.

Plans call for office space designed to integrate research and clinical care in an “ideal patient experience” — from parking, arrival and check-in to examination, treatment and patient discharge. The facility will be designed to provide the best outpatient care and the best possible health and healing environment for patients and their families available anywhere.

“The new Emory Clinic and its revolutionary concept for patient care was first a vision of what could be, then a plan on the drawing boards, and now finally a reality, and I am glad to see this important project under way,” said Michael M.E. Johns, executive vice president for health affairs, CEO of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, and chairman of Emory Healthcare.

Emory’s vision is to build the health care environment of tomorrow for all the people of Atlanta, the state of Georgia and the Southeast. The new facilities, scheduled for opening in 2012, will support patient care, medical training and research in order for Emory to fulfill its goal to transform health and healing in the 21st century.

A recent gift from The Robert W. Woodruff Foundation Inc. of $240 million will be used toward the construction of the $365 million state-of-the-art facility on Clifton Road. After the opening of this building in 2012, one of the existing clinic buildings will be converted primarily into research space to facilitate the translational component of the new Clinic, at a cost of $30 million. In addition, The Emory Clinic has plans on the drawing board to build a second new clinic facility with related research at Emory’s Midtown campus — estimated to cost $160 million.

“We are continuing to incorporate into Emory facilities evidence-based design using evidence-based medicine, with integrated teams of professionals working together to provide patient- and family-centered care,” said John Fox, CEO of Emory Healthcare. “This is the future model for all Emory clinics and hospitals. We do know that when you walk in those doors, sometime in the summer of 2012, that you will be wowed by the grace of the architectural design, the technology and the way the layout revolutionizes the patient experience. Many dedicated people at Emory are working toward this goal, and putting tremendous time and energy into the process to ensure its success.”

The new facility will capitalize on providing flexible and efficient space; effective use of technology, including the ability to use emerging technologies to support care of people in remote sites; spaces that will allow Emory to pursue educational and research activities within the clinical care environment; and facilities that support innovation in developing new approaches to care and to wellness.

“In order to create the ideal patient and family experience, now and for the future, and to transform health care, we are operating on a set of what we call key principles for transformation,” said S. Wright Caughman, director of The Emory Clinic and vice president for clinical and academic integration in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center. “I believe these principles are helping us assure that the building, our integrated health care programs and the needs of our patients and their families will complement and enhance each other, and that the new health care facilities at Emory will serve as catalysts for transformation of health care delivery, research and education that will set a standard for health and healing in the 21st century.”

Robert W. Woodruff helped establish The Emory Clinic more than 50 years ago, and today’s Woodruff Foundation has continued its investment in Emory’s vision and commitment to provide the best patient care and medical training anywhere. Today, The Emory Clinic is the primary entry point to adult patient care in Emory Healthcare and the largest, most comprehensive group practice in Georgia.

Top-five architectural firm HKS is providing conceptual and schematic design, design development and construction documents for the new building. Staubach Company, a global real estate advisory firm, will manage the project.

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